Invasion of Pern
by Kitsuneko
Summary: A ship of parasitic aliens crash-lands on an unknown planet, and the survivors must plan an invasion. But this planet is in danger already, and it has protectors. There are dragons in Pern's skies, but while they fight against Thread's hazards, they are oblivious to a more insidious danger. That's left to five young humans and one alien to fight. No canon knowledge required.
1. The Crash

Consider this a prologue to the main plot. I've done my best to write in such a way that no previous knowledge of either canon is required to understand the story; please let me know if there is something in particular you are confused about, and I will answer the question, incorporate the information into a future or past chapter, and/or laugh evilly to myself and remain silent, as appropriate.

Fair warning, I'm not making any promises as to updates. I have plenty of stuff planned for this story, but I don't exactly have a good track record of finishing writing projects, so we'll see how it goes.

* * *

_Now then, Odrish Three-Zero-Eight, was it? The beginning—let's start there. What do you remember about the day the ship crashed?_

I have a very clear memory of that day—or, the beginning of it at least. Later on, things got…confusing.

_Naturally. Everyone did. Moving on…_

Yes sir. That was the same day that I received my first official host body. I heard my name being called through the sonic relay in the pool. "Odrish Three-Zero-Eight, to the infestation pier. A gedd host has been prepared for you." That was a first as well; the sub-vissers never had a reason to call on me before. Anyway—my first host was a gedd.

It was a bit like the old male gedd I'd practiced in during training, and like the training gedd, this one was also a male. He was younger, though, stronger. He was thrashing around in the yeerk pool. I could tell because the waves from his motion kept striking my body as I jetted over to the infestation pier, and even as inexperienced as I was, I still recognized the sound and feel of a struggling creature in water. Whoever was holding him down got him under control though, and I squeezed myself through his ear and wrapped my body around his brain, as I'd been taught.

As soon as my palps connected with the host's brain, I became aware of senses and thoughts beyond my own. The gedd was grumbling in the back of his mind, but once I took control of him, he stopped fighting and settled down, recognizing the futility of struggling. It allowed me to raise the gedd back to his feet and look around so I could get my bearings.

Of course, we were right beside the yeerk pool, which sits in the dead center of the pool ship under a portable kandrona generator. The area around the edges of the pool were bustling with yeerk controllers in host bodies, as usual. I'm not sure I'll ever get used to the sense of sight. I'd only had a few experiences with the dulled senses of the training gedd, and what really struck me about this new host was how much sharper and more focused everything seemed.

I looked around me at the other controllers. The gedds' fur was bluer than I remembered, their eyes yellower as they shuffled by on clumsy legs and knuckles. The taxxon worms' many blood-red eyes stood out sharply against their glistening, sickly yellow skin. Even the liquid in the yeerk pool had a metallic tinge from the kandrona that I had never noticed before, where the water wasn't rippling with the presence of unhosted yeerks—er, but I don't think that's what you wanted to talk about.

_Indeed. Then again, you never know what may turn out to be important. This is an interview, Odrish Three-Zero-Eight, not an interrogation._

…Right. Well, as I said, it was my first "real" host, and it took me a while to get used to it. Since gedds aren't really build to stand upright on just two legs, I found it easier to hunch my back and rest the extra weight on one of my arms. I discovered this gedd body preferred the left arm. It was about then that I noticed another gedd controller sitting by the nearest unused infestation pier, watching me get acclimated to the new body.

As soon as I was properly balanced, I gave him a salute with my free arm, guessing this controller was most likely higher-ranked than me. His body was also a male, though it was older and stronger than mine; it intimidated my own gedd brain. He spoke in Galard, despite the difficulty of the galactic common tongue on gedd throats and teeth.

"Rr-you are Odrish Three-Zero-Eight, yes? Rr-you work for me now. My rrrank is Sub-Visser Two-Hundred-Twenty-Nine. Come."

"Rr-yes, sir," I replied. I was, of course, excited at the opportunity to prove my worth to the Empire, and I was eager to get started. Sub-Visser Two-Hundred-Twenty-Nine led me on a very short tour around the relevant parts of the ship—the gedd quarters, the kitchens and storage bays, and so on—until we came back to the main yeerk pool. He gestured at the hall leading to the bridge of the pool ship.

"Rr-that's where the vissers work," he explained. "Rr-I am sometimes rr-called to assist them, rr-and you will be assisting _me_. Rr-but don't get in their way."

It turned out that mostly, I would be working in the kitchens, preparing food for the host bodies and cleaning up. It…was not enviable work, once I realized it included feeding taxxons as well. The first time I caught a glance—and whiff—of a taxxon greedily devouring a chunk of raw, fresh meat, it made my host start to shake in fear. I redoubled my efforts to get promoted to a position where I could do something useful.

That was where I worked for the next several hours, under the supervision of Sub-Visser Two-Hundred-Twenty-Nine. The other controllers in the kitchens had no more rank than I did, and the sub-visser was the only ranking yeerk I'd met. Almost the minute my shift ended, an alarm began to blare, three times in quick succession, and I asked him what it was.

"Rr-that's just the zero-space rr-alert system. Rr-it means we're going back into real space. Ignore it; we'll be rr-jumping into z-space again soon, rr-no doubt," the sub-visser explained.

I hadn't even known we were in z-space at the time, nor why we were apparently jumping in and out of a non-dimension repeatedly. "Rr-where are we going?" I asked.

The sub-visser's yellow eyes blinked at me. "Rr-you don't know what happened? Rr-you _are_ new." He chuckled, but it was not a pleasant sound. "The rr-pool ship was attacked by rr-andalites near the Basyor system. Rr-they destroyed our z-space targeting and navigation system, and rr-we lost an engine trying to get away. The ship's alright as long as we drift in deep space or zero-space, but rr-we need to land to rr-make repairs, and with an rr-engine out…" His head shook back and forth sadly, and my imagination finished the thought. "Rr-that's why the vissers are rr-sending us through all our z-space coordinates at rr-random, to find a rr-safe planet to make a controlled landing on."

I was sorry I asked. Now I knew that at any moment, we could all die in a fiery crash through a planet's atmosphere, if somebody miscalculated. With the transition out of zero-space and into real space, though, I was allowed a break, and I wandered back up to the yeerk pool center. It was also one of the only parts of the ship with a vid-screen to show our surroundings outside the ship. Since we had not yet transitioned, the screen still showed the blank whiteness of z-space, but as I watched, the screen flashed and turned black, dotted with stars. I thought I even felt a lurch in my gedd body as we arrived in real space. We were near enough to the closest star to see it clearly, and even make out some of the planets orbiting it. I was far from the only yeerk who paused to stare at the vid-screen.

The sun was a medium-sized yellow, and at the moment, I could make out two round, rocky shapes that looked like planets. In those first few minutes out of z-space, nobody seemed too concerned or excited about this solar system. Apparently they'd seen quite a few already that ended up failures. It was nearly an hour before we began to realize that something was different.

I learned from other controllers that the vissers would send the ship back into z-space after about half an hour, when they realized that whatever system we'd landed in didn't have a safe or habitable planet. But something about this time was different. The pool ship wasn't going back into z-space.

In fact, somebody seemed to have decided we had found the planet we were looking for. We were definitely moving closer to the sun, and one of the planets was getting larger. Soon we could make out at least two natural satellites around it, as well as another, red-colored planet. The planet getting steadily larger was a greenish blue color with swirls of white, which boded well for an atmosphere. A few controllers even pointed out two brownish landmasses before the sub-vissers yelled at us to get back to work.

Whenever I got an opportunity, I would watch the planet growing larger on the vid-screen, until eventually, Sub-Visser Two-Hundred-Twenty-Nine came to give me my next set of orders. I thought he was going to send me back to the kitchens, but he didn't. "Rr-I've been called to the rr-bridge. You'll come along, rr-to help me."

It took me by surprise—it wasn't much of a promotion, but it was more than I was expecting. More likely, I just happened to be the first non-busy gedd assistant he saw. But that's how I got onto the bridge, the same day we ended up crash-landing on a strange planet.

_And did you notice anything out of the ordinary while you were on the bridge?_

Everything seemed normal to me…but then, this _was_ my first day. Besides, Sub-Visser Two-Hundred-Twenty-Nine had me running back and forth between his quarters and the bridge most of the time, fetching chips and drives that seemed useless—though I'm sure they were actually vital information.

The only other yeerks I recognized were the vissers themselves, and that was because, in addition to the two of them having strong, imposing hork-bajir hosts in their prime, the sub-visser addressed Visser Seven and Visser Twelve by rank.

That was how I learned to tell them apart, as well, because mostly, they looked alike. Visser Seven's host was a tall and slender hork-bajir female; she had two thick legs ending in talons, a pair of arms with clawed hands, scaly green skin, a beaked mouth, and of course the serrated blades protruding from the forehead, limbs and tail. As the higher-ranked visser, she gave most of the orders.

Visser Twelve…I wasn't sure whether he was subordinate to Visser Seven or not, but he seemed content to let her give the orders. As far as the rest of us were concerned, though, he expected to be obeyed when he did open his mouth, and we listened. His male host was even larger and taller than Visser Seven's, with an extra horn on his forehead, but otherwise they looked quite similar to my gedd eyes.

To tell the truth, though, I was somewhat less interested in observing the vissers than I was in watching the planet we were approaching. Like the yeerk pool, the ship's bridge had a vid-screen. But this one was both bigger and of a higher quality than the one I had seen before, _and_ it was zoomed in on the blue-green planet. I could see that it had oceans and three continents, as well as two natural moons. More intriguing, however, were the three metallic objects clearly visible now, orbiting the planet closely. The bridge went completely silent the moment the strange objects came into view.

"Rr-those are spaceships," one of the other gedd-controllers spoke up, breaking the silence. "Rr-someone's already been here."

"The question is, are they still here?" Visser Twelve rumbled. "What species is responsible for that build? I don't think I recognize the ships."

"Any activity on them?" Visser Seven added.

The gedd opted to answer Visser Seven first. "Rr-No, visser. They seem to be rr-depowered. Most likely rr-abandoned. No signs of rr-life aboard."

"So, someone sent three decent-sized ships to a backwater planet and left them there to rot?" The skepticism was clear in Visser Seven's voice.

"Rr-they seem very old. Rr-I don't have any rr-records of these ships rr-in the database. Says it's rr-not a known species." There was an uneasy ripple of fear among the controllers. A trio of unknown, abandoned ships, orbiting an unexplored planet, stank of bad luck, I guess.

"What about the planet itself? Does it support life? Those colors make me hopeful," Visser Twelve said.

About this time, I was sent away again, to fetch fresh meat for the taxxon-controllers with some of my fellow low-ranking yeerks. I left with reluctance, and not just because I missed the rest of the conversation. Feeding a taxxon was always dangerous—you could never know whether one of those carnivorous worms would get over-excited and mistake the _server_ as part of the meal, and even the yeerks inside their heads couldn't seem to control that hunger. I think the less said about that experience, the better.

When I had completed my tasks and returned to the sub-visser, the conversation on the bridge had died down. The pool ship's sensors had completed their scans of the planet's surface, and they were completing their reports of the planet's lifeforms and any technology present. I stifled a yawn as I listened—it was going into the ship's night-cycle and my gedd body was used to sleeping by now, but this was hardly the time to take a rest.

The scans had discovered clear signs of life on the planet, even what seemed to be a primitive civilization, which boded well for potential host bodies if we needed them. There was an undercurrent of discomfort among the gedd. It took me awhile to even notice it, but eventually, I managed to pinpoint the cause of it. It was the ships—a silent and ominous reminder that we still didn't know where they came from or who they belonged to.

"Rr-can we be certain this rr-species is rr-really as primitive as they seem? This rr-may be an offshoot of a more powerful force, a colony," one of the sub-vissers on board cautioned.

"But there's no communication signals from the planet, no technology at all that we can detect. Whoever built those ships was much more advanced than the species on that planet, and they don't seem to care about taking back their property," Visser Twelve pointed out.

A taxxon sub-visser spoke up through his translation communicator (only the other taxxon controllers would've been able to understand the incomprehensible taxxon tongue, anyway), and said, "We are losing speed and fuel as we approach the planet. We must soon decide: either attempt an emergency landing on this planet's surface and subdue whatever species we discover, or retreat back into zero-space and start our search over again."

Visser Seven grunted, and everyone's eyes turned to her. "The galaxy's teeming with andalites and other races too powerful for us to face at the moment. We need to regroup and repair before we can get in touch with the rest of the Empire; to do that, we need to make a landing, no matter the risks. I doubt we're going to find a more suitable planet than this one." She paused thoughtfully. "No time to find all the centers of their population, but try to aim for the mountains. We're less likely to encounter a large city that way, and I'd rather not alert the local population to our presence immediately if we can avoid it."

"Yes, visser!" The pilots and navigators, most of them in many-eyed and many-clawed taxxon hosts, leapt to obey Visser Seven's orders.

"How much power is left in the right engine now?" Visser Twelve asked.

"…It's down to five percent effectiveness, sir." The taxxon's translator didn't convey emotion, but there was a noticeable tremor of fear in his hissing and spitting, sounds which he didn't bother to translate. Now that I was concentrating on it, I could _feel_ the ship listing slightly to one side, which the artificial gravity was failing to correct.

"Well then," Visser Twelve rumbled. "Prepare for a rough landing, people." And that's when we began our "descent."

_But it _was_ a controlled landing in the beginning, not a complete crash?_

It…started out that way. We were going faster than we should have as we entered the atmosphere, and I wasn't sure how the pilots planned to compensate for it. We started out aiming for the smaller continent in the west, but there was trouble maneuvering the ship correctly as we continued. But at that point, I think we still would have been alright, if things had gone according to plan.

_What exactly happened to make the pool ship crash completely, the way it did, Odrish Three-Zero-Eight?_

We were over the ocean and listing towards the larger continent, and something hit us. At first, the vissers and sub-vissers thought it was a fighter-plane of some sort, that the species below was more advanced than we realized. But it wasn't a beam weapon that struck us, just a stream of pure fire, as far as the sensors could tell. And…I didn't see much, but it did show up on the vid-screen, sir, just before it attacked us. It didn't look like a ship at all. It looked like…a flying creature of some sort. It looked _alive_.

…_And what happened to this biological fire-spitter of yours?_

I don't know. I tried to find and help the sub-visser, but the bridge dissolved into chaos after that—the other engine started to fail, and we lost control entirely. Whatever it was, it hit us dead-on at short range, and then immediately vanished from the sky. I don't know how…it couldn't have flown away so quickly, but it disappeared from all of our sensors, and as far as I know, nobody's seen our attacker since. But I know what I saw, sir, and it wasn't a ship.

_It's not _impossible_ for a fire-producing creature to evolve, but it does seem unlikely. You were new to your host body, and gedd eyes are not that efficient. The crash was chaotic, as well. Weren't you one of the ones who had to be rescued from their host body?_

They had to crush the gedd's skull to get me out of his brain. He…was already doomed at that point.

_A pity…we lost so many of our most useful hosts in the crash, not to mention both of our noble vissers. We will need to be careful while we scope out this planet, but the local natives _do _seem promising._

Sir?

_A scouting group has already captured a few of the native species. Sub-Visser Two-Hundred-Twenty-Nine —excuse me, Visser Twelve now—specifically requested that you be one of the yeerks to infest them. Be honored; you'll be one of the first yeerks to control a new species. You may even be able to find something in their memories to prove your story of this "attacker" of yours._

I…yes, sir.


	2. The Alien

If you had trouble parsing the Gedd dialogue in the last chapter, try it again. I simplified a lot of it, on the basis that clear dialogue is more important than accurately reflecting KA Applegate's style and grammar.

* * *

My name is Taicor, and this is my story. Not that anybody will ever hear this, besides Taisk, of course. There's too much danger of being discovered, but I just felt like it was something I needed to put into words. I guess it comes from my parents. They're both harpers, and I was pretty much raised in the Harper Crafthall. Even though I chose not to apprentice there, it seems some of the harpers' teaching habits stuck with me.

I guess I should start with _why_ I can't tell this story to anybody else. It's because it's too dangerous. If the wrong person heard and found out about me, I'd be dead. Or even worse, I'd be infested, and then they'd get everyone else who was there with me. The yeerks can't afford to let witnesses get away.

Pern is being infested by alien parasites. _Wow_, that sounds ridiculous when you say it out loud. Even so, it's completely true. I still have some trouble believing it myself, but I saw enough tonight that I can't do anything but accept it.

It started with mine and Taisk's nightly patrol. Now, Taisk is pretty big for a watch-wher, even a bronze, but he's only one turn old, and I'm still in the process of training him-with the help of the senior wherhandlers, who are also training _me_. Someday, we'll take over the job of guarding High Reaches Hold at night from Morag and Nalina and their whers, but that won't be for a long time. We started taking my wher out on regular patrols around the Hold to get him used to the schedule, though, every night after the sun went down.

By now Morag and Nalina trusted me and Taisk enough to take the walk by ourselves. The Hold had been pretty quiet at night lately, and besides, if there was trouble, Taisk could always call to one of the older whers to help. We were in Taisk's den getting ready for the patrol when the trouble started.

I mean, not the _yeerks_, not _that_ trouble, not yet. I'm getting there. But that was when Idynn showed up and said he was tagging along on our patrol tonight. Idynn is the by-blow of High Reaches' Lord Holder, and he's also a smarmy and arrogant bastard. He was off hobnobbing with other lordlings in Ista for a few turns, but ever since he came back, he's been getting into everyone's business and asking annoying questions about how things get done and why. Basically, he and I don't get along.

I asked him, "Why do you want to come with us?"

He shrugged. "I want to see what a normal wher patrol is supposed to be like. How long it takes, what the typical route is, things like that. I won't be in the way, will I?" He lifted dark eyebrows questioningly, almost as if it was a challenge.

"No," I bit out. It probably wouldn't be too much trouble really, except for the fact that I didn't want to spend an extra hour with him. But I couldn't exactly turn him away for that, and besides, if he was here, Idynn had almost certainly gotten the approval of Morag and Nalina first, so there was no point in arguing. "Fine then, let's go."

Taisk did a marvelous job of ignoring Idynn after his initial inspection of him. Since it was early in the night, the wher was still full of energy and eager to get out for a while and work some of it off. I led Taisk through the usual route at a brisk pace, and let Idynn follow us however he wanted. I wasn't going to make an effort to slow down for him.

It was late enough that most Holdfolk were indoors already, if not already asleep, and the exterior of the Hold was pretty much deserted. We took a winding path through the tended fields and beyond that to the edge of the forest without seeing a single other person. Idynn didn't say much, and neither did I, but when we hit the tree line, Taisk started making a low, rumbling huff sound that meant he'd caught scent or sight of something odd.

Idynn gave a sidelong glance at the watch-wher. "That's not a routine reaction, is it?"

I shook my head. "Nope. He's caught the scent of something. Probably a lost drunk or something, but we'll check it out." Taisk continued making that huffing noise as I grabbed the heavy collar clasped around his thick, stubby neck. I gave the word and he stalked off along the forest's edge, toward whatever he'd found, with Idynn and me following. Rather than heading further into the woods, we were getting closer to the shoreline, and we ended up in a tiny cove between the beach and the forest, maybe a mile out from the Hold proper. It wasn't empty, either.

Two girls my age were kneeling on sandy ground, beside the old and battered remains of a skiff. One of them had a hammer and nails beside her, while the other held new wooden planks in her hands. It wasn't difficult to figure out they were trying to repair the boat. They both looked up in alarm as Taisk stalked into the cove, still growling, along with me and then Idynn.

"What are you doing out here?" Idynn demanded.

The taller of the two girls looked at him—her blue eyes were defiant. "We're fixing a boat. Isn't that what it looks like we're doing?" She had dirty blonde hair that was cropped short for a girl. In fact, I thought I vaguely recognized her as one of the local Hold girls.

Her friend looked a little apologetic as she stood and faced us. This girl, I _did_ recognize. Her name was Faissi, and her father was one of High Reaches' resident fishermen and a journeyman seacrafter. Faissi seemed to accompany him whenever he came around the Hold, which was fairly often, even after sunset.

She was also really pretty. Like, strikingly, head-turning pretty. She was shorter than the other girl, but her skin was smooth and the darkest, ebony brown I'd ever seen. Her hair was long and shiny black, tied in curling braids. Faissi looked nervously at Taisk, who looked both girls over head to toe, still growling. I placed a hand on the watch-wher's snout to quiet him, while Faissi started to explain. "We didn't _steal_ it or anything. It was being junked, so we picked it up and decided to fix it ourselves."

I gave a shrug. That explanation was good enough for me, though I did have one question. "Why are you out here at _night_, though?"

The other girl flushed. "There's a lotta work to be done on a farm, don't have much free time till after dark, especially with having to watch the younger kids."

"And I spend most of my days helping my father," Faissi added. "He doesn't like me going out after dark, though. Joah's parents don't know she comes out here to help me, either, so we'd _really_ appreciate it if you didn't tell anyone about us." Faissi gave a dazzling smile as she glanced hopefully from me to Idynn.

Ever the stuck-up lordling, Idynn snorted. "I really should, actually. Even if the boat was junked, we could have used the wood for something useful." But with three pairs of eyes pleading silently with him, he relented. "But I suppose I can let it slide this time," he added with a sigh.

"Oh, thank you," Faissi's voice was filled with relief, but her eyes were focused on Taisk, who was still growling audibly. I looked down at him; he seemed fine with Joah and Faissi, but he was upset about _something_, and I realized there might still be somebody else out there. Idynn realized it about the same moment I did, staring hard at the bronze wher.

I managed to ask, "What's wrong, Taisk?" but even before I finished the wher was running off, finally frustrated with our inability to sense whatever it was he'd found. I immediately yelled for him to stop, but Taisk didn't listen, he just kept running off into the forest. I followed him, along with Idynn and the two girls. We were all more curious than smart, I guess. And _now_ we're getting to the aliens.

See, what Taisk had found wasn't a drunk or a bandit or a wild wher, like I expected. It wasn't anything I'd ever seen or heard of before on Pern. It had the four hooved legs of a goat, except the creature was larger and more slender. But where the head should have been, the body melded seamlessly into the upper body, arms and legs of something that could almost have a teenage boy, but for a few noticeable differences. For one thing, it was covered in pale blue fur, and while it had two bright green eyes where one expected to find them, the creature also had a second pair of eyes mounted on short, flexible tendrils sticking out of its head. Also, while it had three vertical slits for a nose, it had no mouth at all (and don't ask me how _that's_ supposed to work).

But, once you got past all of that, the creature seemed harmless, almost cute, even…if you ignored the tail. It was long, thickly-muscled, and arched up over the creature's back to hover around the shoulder, and that tail was tipped with a small but very sharp blade. That tail was constantly tensed and ready to strike at Taisk, who was standing his ground right in front of the being. I got the sense that tail could have done enough damage on its own to deter a watch-wher, but one of the creature's many-fingered arms was holding a handheld device of some sort, aimed at Taisk. I would have been more worried about that object, but I was preoccupied with the shock of seeing something that was definitely not from Pern, and anyway, I didn't find out it was a weapon until later.

The alien, because that's what it was, of course, didn't move at first, even as the four of us burst out of the bushes and stopped in our tracks. The eyestalks moved around to focus on us, and the tail twitched slightly, but the alien's main eyes and outstretched arm both stayed focused on Taisk. We all just paused like that for a moment, taking everything in.

The girl, Joah, was the first of us to speak up. "_What_, by Faranth's scorched shell, is that?"

Faissi was next. "It doesn't look like anything else on Pern…do you think it's intelligent?"

"It _looks_ intelligent…I guess," Idynn added. "More like a person than a herdbeast, at least. I wonder if it understands us?"

Meanwhile, I was focused on getting my watch-wher's attention and figuring out if he was about to attack the creature or not.

_I understand you._ We all heard it in our heads at the same moment, as clear as dragon voices were said to be: words without any physical sound.

The four of us looked at the alien, surprised, and I mumbled, "Oh, of course. It's got no mouth, so that's how it talks. Like a dragon." For the first time, it moved, turning its human-like head so that its main eyes were staring at me. At the same moment, one of the being's stalk eyes twisted around to Taisk, who abruptly fell silent. I stepped forward and grabbed onto his collar, mainly because I didn't know what else to do.

_Is this creature your pet?_ The alien voice asked_. I have tried to explain to it that I am not a threat, but I'm not sure it understands. And what is a dragon?_ I'm not that great at interpreting the mental emotions of aliens, but the voice sounded calm, but also a little curious, especially at the end.

"Taisk's not a pet, he's my partner. A watch-wher," I explained. "A dragon's…umm, sort of a bigger, smarter version of a wher, but with proper wings instead of small and stunted ones, like Taisk's got." I glanced at Idynn and the others—they didn't look like they had any more idea what to do from here than I did. I placed a hand on Taisk's snout and made a shushing sound to let him know everything was alright. He settled down and sat back on his haunches. At the same time, the stranger lowered its arm with the weird object, and it seemed to relax just a bit.

_I am not of this planet—Pern, you called it? _Its voice was solemn. _I am an andalite, and I come from—well, very far away. There's no time to explain all of it. We are all in very grave danger. Especially right now._

"Danger?" Idynn said skeptically. "From what? Thread isn't due to fall for a few more days, and the only other thing to worry about around here is wild whers. Taisk is enough to scare away any of them, so—"

_This danger isn't native to your planet. There are other visitors to this world, and they are…invaders. Conquerors. _As the alien spoke, it seemed to be growing more nervous, rushing its words as we stood around. Taisk was stiffening as well, scenting the air and peering into the dark woods. I got a bad feeling about that.

"Taisk, is someone coming?" I asked. The bronze wher huffed, which was an affirmative sound. The blue alien also looked to the wher, and its eyes widened. It jerked away.

_They are coming, we must hurry!_ The stranger looked back at us, seeming to assess each of us in turn. _If you want to remain safe, you may come onto my ship. Otherwise, I cannot assure that the yeerks—the invaders—will not find you. _The alien set off deeper into the woods, just slow enough to allow us to catch up if we chose to.

I didn't know exactly what would happen if these alien 'yeerks' caught us, but I didn't want to find out. I started running after the alien, and Joah was right behind me. Faissi glanced uncertainly at Idynn, who started to say something, but gave up and chased after Faissi and the rest of us.

The andalite pushed aside the branches of a hardy shrub, and it was only then that I noticed the well-camouflaged ship hiding behind the undergrowth. Although to call it a ship would be a stretch, even to someone like Faissi, since it didn't bear any resemblance to a galleon or schooner. It was round and smooth except for a pair of stubby wing-like extensions, and made out of some sort of metal. Its most noticeable feature was a "tail," startlingly similar to the andalite's own tail, arching up and over the rest of the ship until it disappeared underneath a cover of clinging plants.

The andalite must have done something I couldn't see, because a hole suddenly appeared in the side of the "ship," which the andalite ushered us through. I went first, along with Taisk, and the others followed. The inside of the craft looked a lot like the outside—smooth, rounded walls with no corners, and all of it made out of metal. There was a panel of some sort, on the opposite wall from us, full of knobs and buttons, but there was no chair or other furniture of any kind. We were gathered in one large room, but I saw what looked like doors that led to other, smaller rooms. I heard the swooshing sound of the door closing behind me, and I turned to see the alien facing me, Idynn, Faissi, and Joah.

_Well,_ it said after a pause, _I suppose this is proof enough that none of you are yeerks. No yeerk in the galaxy would willingly walk into an andalite's ship._

"Well, if you know so much about these yeerks, shouldn't you know already what they look like?" Idynn asked.

The andalite made a sighing sound._ It is not that simple. The yeerks are a race of parasites. In their natural form, they are small, sluglike creatures, but they can crawl inside the bodies of other sentient beings and control them, even access their memories. That's what makes them so dangerous—they've already enslaved five or six different species across the galaxy, and if they are on Pern, then_ your _people are almost certainly their next target. _

The alien's giant green main eyes blinked slowly_. I suppose I should introduce myself. My name is Erithea-Salahar-Derahi. You may call me Erithea._

"Hi, Erithea. My name's Taicor," I said, because after just being told that your world's being invaded by a _second_ form of deadly extraterrestrial life, and this one is even smart enough to plan a secret invasion instead of being a mindless, voracious fungal spore that falls on a regular schedule like Thread does, what _else_ are you supposed to say?

The andalite, Erithea, didn't seem bothered. _Taicor. It sounds like his name?_ At least I thought there was a questioning tone at the end of that, as Erithea gestured to Taisk. It didn't take long for me to catch on.

"Oh, yeah. Whers take their names from their handlers, or sometimes the Hold they defend. Not really sure how it works; it's just what they do." I shrugged.

_I see,_ the andalite said. Maybe Erithea really did understand, maybe it was a bald-faced lie. I didn't know the alien well enough to tell. The stalk-eyes twisted around again, taking in the rest of the group.

"I'm Joah," she spoke up immediately, "And this is my friend, Faissi."

We all kind of glanced at the last member of the group. Idynn crossed his arms and frowned. "I'll take your word for it that you came from another world, but I find it hard to believe this invasion story. We live in a major Hold; there's no way the news wouldn't have spread all over if there were others," he told the andalite.

"The obnoxious skeptic is Idynn," I added helpfully, ignoring his poisonous glare.

"He does have a point," Faissi said, noticing that the alien's eyes had all narrowed at Idynn's statement. "How could something like that go entirely unnoticed? Surely people would notice _something_ odd?"

_I'm not sure,_ Erithea admitted. _I-I haven't been here long, and I didn't know the yeerks were here at first. It's hard to tell how long they've been here or how entrenched they have become, but I know that they are here now, and they are a clever and subtle race. _The last part was said with extreme reluctance. _They would be smart enough to keep themselves hidden, even on a world that was…unwary, until they were absolutely certain they could take it all. They were looking for me once they discovered me, and probably still are. Here,_ Erithea moved over to the strange panel and pushed a few things.

What had just been a solid wall melded into a window, showing the forest we had just left. Along with the familiar sight came sounds from outside as well. It wasn't just the normal sounds of the woods at night, though. There was the startling sounds of several large creatures stomping around just as they burst through the undergrowth into the clearing. Even after everything Erithea had said, I was surprised to see that they were human, and yet there was something just a little off about them. The first was a big, burly man with the shoulder knots of a journeyman miner. The second was a lithe, muscular woman, her dark brown hair braided and pinned up.

_You do not have to worry about being discovered_, Erithea assured us. _They cannot see or hear inside the ship, even though we can see and hear them, and the ship itself is stealthed—disguised from the outside._

The woman scowled irritably and brandished a metal object in her left hand, similar to the one Erithea carried. "What is that?" I asked in a whisper.

_It is a projectile weapon used by the yeerks. They call it a dracon beam, though its design was stolen from that of andalite shredders like my own,_ Erithea explained.

"Wait, you pulled a weapon on—"

"Shh!" That came from both Faissi and Idynn, who I guess had forgotten that we were supposedly silent and invisible.

The woman outside swiveled and yelled behind her, "Well, come on and get out here. We haven't got all night!"

Slithering effortlessly out of the forest came another creature, and like the andalite, it was immediately obvious it did not come from Pern. It looked more like something that had crawled straight out of my nightmares. Someone let out an audible gasp, maybe one of the girls, or it might have been Idynn. The creature vaguely resembled a sandworm of the Igen deserts—a vast, round, segmented worm with hundreds of tiny legs running along the bottom of a ten-foot-long yellow body. One end of the beast opened into a circular mouth that was lined all around with bulbous red eyes. I didn't usually mind insects, but it made my skin crawl to look at the thing.

_A taxxon—or rather, a taxxon-controller. They are one of the species the yeerks have taken over,_ Erithea explained.

The humans, or as Erithea would have called them, human-controllers, regarded the taxxon with a bored expression. "Well, found anything yet?"

After a moment, a monotone, inhuman voice replied, "It came this way; the andalite cannot be far. You keep a watch out for natives."

"It's the middle of the night," the man said. "According to my host, all of the humans in the area will be asleep by now." He gave a careless shrug. "And if not, it's easy enough to track one down. We can just infest anyone who stumbles upon us—or feed the interlopers to you, my friend." The huge worm practically slobbered at that, letting a huge red tongue slip out of its mouth. A nasty shiver ran down my spine.

Erithea's stalk eyes twisted to Idynn as the andalite said mildly, _I trust you believe my words_ now?

Idynn, face white as snow, didn't argue, and neither did anyone else. The controllers stalked around the clearing for a few more minutes, but as Erithea had said, they couldn't seem to find the ship, and eventually they wandered off further into the woods. Erithea nodded in satisfaction after they had disappeared_. It would be best to leave now while I can, until they give up and return to their base. I'm concerned that you may be discovered if you leave now, though. Will your absences be noticed within the next few hours?_

I shrugged. "Morag and Nalina will expect Idynn and me to be out late."

Joah added, "Nobody should notice me missing till early morning."

"Me too," Faissi added with a nod.

The andalite did something very strange then. It was like a smile, but with no mouth, it was only noticeable through the alien's eyes. It seemed friendly. _I shall have you back in plenty of time, then. In the meantime, I can take us where the yeerks would not think to go; it's on the other side of the planet._

I said, "What?" but Erithea was already fiddling with the controls again. Very slowly, we started to rise into the air, though I might not have realized without the "window" of the andalite's ship.

"It flies?" Joah asked delightedly.

Erithea laughed in our heads. _Of course! How else would I get around?_

Both Joah and I gathered in front, staring at the shadowy landscape rushing past beneath us, and even Taisk leaned against me and crooned. Faissi stood back, watching with a smile. Idynn was the only one who seemed ill at ease. "I don't like heights," he muttered. "Too much like riding a dragon."

A stalk eye swiveled toward him. _Dragons are something humans can ride, then? And your earlier words implied that they use thought-speak as well?_

"Thought-speak?" Faissi asked.

_Speaking mind-to-mind, the way I do. There are a handful of species we andalites have met who also use it, but it seems to be a rare ability,_ Erithea explained.

"Oh, yeah. People say they can, at least. I've never heard of a dragon addressing anybody who isn't the rider they're bonded to, though. And they don't often leave the Weyrs where they live, either." I should know; like many children, I was more or less obsessed with dragons when I was younger, and dreamed of being chosen to stand at the hatching of a dragon's clutch. Of course, then I decided to become a wherhandler, and I got Taisk's egg instead.

I had the feeling there were a lot more questions Erithea wanted to ask, but I guess steering her ship took a lot of concentration. She didn't add much to the conversation between us humans.

"Seems to me we should be thinking about what to do next," Joah said.

"Besides going home and keeping our heads down?" Idynn replied with raised eyebrows.

"'Course not!" I said. "We've got to help stop the yeerks. For all we know, we're the only ones who even have a clue what's going on."

"Tell the Weyrs, then. They are sworn to protect Pern, after all," Idynn said.

"Maybe," Faissi said, "But how do we know the Weyrs haven't been infiltrated already? Could a yeerk take over a dragon?"

_I don't know._ Erithea's mental voice was terse. _It depends on several factors, but generally yeerks have an easier time infesting a species that's large and sentient._

Joah frowned. "That's probably a yes, then." Because dragons are as smart as humans, and much, much bigger.

"I suppose it doesn't matter much. Compared to what Erithea can do, we'd be useless, I think." Faissi's voice was quiet, but frustrated.

Erithea's stalk eyes turned to us with a sense of incredulousness. _I hate to disappoint you, but I'm not a soldier. I never expected to come face to face with yeerks—we were scientists! I haven't even been in contact with other andalites since—since my family died. _

A sense of crushing loss and despair swept over me, and by their expressions, everyone else. The andalite's thought-speech seemed to be made up of feelings and concepts as much as actual words, but I hadn't felt such a concentrated burst of emotion before.

Two people said "I'm sorry," almost simultaneously—Faissi and, I was surprised to see, Idynn. Joah and I agreed, and even Taisk made a comforting humming croon as he sensed the tension. The bronze wher's faceted eyes whirled gently with various colors, as they did whenever he felt particularly strong emotions.

Straightening as though regaining composure, Erithea nodded. _Thank you. I don't know what we…or anyone else…can do to stop this invasion, but I appreciate whatever you can do anyhow. And slowing it may be enough-as soon as a spaceship passes close enough to this section of star systems, I can communicate through my own ship, and my people are more than a match for the yeerks._

Despite Erithea's proud and confident statement, it's possible I should have asked why it was the andalites hadn't already defeated the yeerks.

* * *

The trip took less than an hour, which amazed us all. Even dragons couldn't travel that fast, not if they were flying straight over land, anyway. What was almost as startling was our destination.

"The _Southern Continent_?" My mind boggled.

_Yes. My family decided it would make an excellent base of operations for our biological survey. Frankly, I'm surprised your people haven't already settled it._

"Well, we did, a long time ago…before we went north. But it's _supposed_ to be barren," I said. "Without dragons to destroy the Thread before it hits the ground, there shouldn't be any plants left." During the trip, we had explained a bit about the deadly spores we called Thread, as well as the responsibility of the fire-breathing dragons and their riders to protect Pern from it.

Erithea landed the ship along a narrow strip of open land between the shoreline and an improbably lush and thick tropical forest, and then smugly said, _Well, I don't wish to insult your species, but clearly, they were mistaken about this continent._ The door of the ship slid open, letting a gust of warm air stream inside, despite the late night. We had traveled almost straight south from High Reaches Hold, rather than traveling east or west through time zones.

Taisk sprinted outside to explore the shoreline, and the rest of us followed. The andalite was last, hands clasped around a small, blue cube. All four eyes focused on us. Whatever was going on, Erithea was serious about it.

_Saying we are_ completely _defenseless would be inaccurate. I have given a lot of thought to whether or not to reveal this secret to you. This is an Escafil device; it's against our laws for me to even have it, and worse still to share it with non-andalites, but, _Erithea sighed, nostrils flaring._ The situation is dire. It may give us the edge we need to defend this planet. _

"What does it do?" Joah asked what was on my own mind.

Picking words very carefully now, Erithea explained, _After the war with the yeerks began, our scientists designed a morphing technology that would assist our spies in infiltrating the yeerk ships. It wasn't as effective as they had hoped for, involving its original purpose. However, on an established planet, against a relatively small force of yeerks, considering they haven't yet overrun this planet, it may help to fend them off. Put simply, activating the device will grant each of you the ability to touch any animal and "acquire" it. You will then have the power to turn into that animal at any time. It is something the yeerks won't expect, and… _The stalk eyes moved to stare towards Taisk, _Some of the native lifeforms I've seen already are quite formidable. _

We all paused to take it in. "We use that," Idynn said, "And we can turn into anything we touch?"

_Yes. Any animal, at least,_ Erithea replied. _Though there are some limitations. It is useful for guerilla tactics, hit-and-run attacks, which is to our benefit, I believe. You want to help,_ the andalite offered the cube in one hand, _This is how you can do it._

Joah actually beat me to the Escafil device, but only barely. There was no way I could justify to myself giving up now. Faissi hesitated, glancing apologetically at her friend. "My father…I'm all he has. It's too dangerous."

Idynn hadn't moved at all. "Sensible," he said approvingly. "Taicor will no doubt do as he pleases, but you girls shouldn't be asked to fight."

"Excuse me?" That was Joah, glaring heatedly at Idynn.

"That wasn't—here. I'll do it." Faissi stepped forward to place her hand on the device as well.

Erithea's eyes narrowed on Idynn. _I suggest you drop _that_ line of thought right now. I'm afraid you boys are outnumbered._

"Oh."

"…_Oh_."

At least it was Idynn who said it and not me. Okay, Erithea _did_ sound like a feminine name, but how could you expect to tell the difference with an alien?

Idynn rallied, though I could tell his face was flushed with embarrassment. "Regardless, who says I want any part of this farce?"

I protested. "They're a threat to everyone, _including_ us! You heard those controllers. They would sooner kill us than look at us—or infest us, and frankly, I've not sure which one would be worse!"

He opened his mouth as though about to speak, but apparently he thought better of it. He shook his head. "Fine, whatever. I'll help—for now. But I'm not promising I'll stick around."

As soon as Idynn placed his hand on the cube, a sharp tingling sensation passed from my fingers and up my arm. I drew my palm up to my face for inspection as the feeling dissipated, but nothing _seemed_ different. "That's it?" Idynn asked with his customary skepticism.

_Yes, that's it,_ Erithea said. She paced along the shoreline, twisting her stalk eyes back to watch us. _Would you like to try it out now? I can show you._

I glanced at Faissi. She and Joah looked as curious as I did. "Sure," I said.

_I have already acquired a native creature as a test. I've noticed similar creatures tend to flock to me whenever I'm morphed. Don't be alarmed._

Trust me, that warning was appreciated. I had a vague idea that changing your shape was a quick and seamless process. I was wrong.

It started with Erithea's tail—its tailblade seemed to melt and dissolve, but didn't disappear entirely. It just became a featureless, smooth tip, matching a second prong extending from a forked tail tip. Next was her stalk eyes, shrinking down until they disappeared into her head, which was bulging out into a sort of muzzle. The andalite's front pair of hooves were sucked into her body, but at the same time, huge, leathery wings were sprouting out of her back. After that, it got hard to make out details. For one thing, it was vaguely nauseating to watch, but Erithea was also getting smaller rapidly. Her fur turned golden and then turned to bare flesh. The entire process took about two minutes, and the result was something I had never seen before-only heard about in old folktales.

"A fire lizard!" Joah said, actually clapping her hands in excitement.

It was like a dragon in miniature: four clawed legs and a pair of long, webbed wings extending from the shoulders. The tail was long and forked, the neck matched the tail in length, and the head was wedge-shaped with large, faceted eyes similar to an insect's, filled with swirling colors. The skin was smooth and supple, and the gleaming gold hide meant that this fire lizard was a queen, largest and most dominant of the five colors. Not that two and a half feet from nose to tail was particularly large.

"I half-thought they were extinct. No one's ever caught one. They say it's impossible," Faissi said.

_I only managed to acquire this one by stunning it temporarily with my shredder. Unfortunately, you can't simply acquire it from me. It has to be directly from a living animal. But they seem to be rather common in this area, especially along the beaches…and they seem to be attracted to this form. _Erithea said this almost shyly. As if on cue, five more fire lizards flew around our group, perching in the branches nearby and staring with marked interest at Erithea. The biggest was a bronze, only slightly smaller than Erithea's gold morph, and the smaller fire lizards present were a brown, a blue, and finally two small greens.

As for catching one of them to acquire, well, we all gave it a shot, but their reputation for being impossible to catch was well-earned. When Joah tried to leap up and grab the bronze's tail, he made a loud chirping sound and abruptly vanished with a quiet pop. We were all startled, but Erithea most of all. _What was that? The fire lizard disappeared completely._

"I think it went _between_," I said. "That's what dragons do: disappear from one spot, reappear somewhere else a few seconds later, and it doesn't matter how far away they travel." Knowing she would ask, I added, "_Between_ is sort of a space between places, I guess. It's supposed to be very dark and very cold. The only way to access it seems to be by dragon…or fire lizard."

_Biological teleportation…_ Erithea sounded awed. _I've never heard of such a thing._

It was actually kind of reassuring to know more about something than the alien did, to be honest.

* * *

It took time, but the fire lizards wouldn't leave Erithea alone. Every time they popped _between_ or flew away, they would come back, staying just beyond our reach. At last, after more than an hour of trying, we managed to coax them close enough to touch, provided we remained absolutely still and preferably near Erithea. The first to acquire one was Faissi; she got one of the green females onto her arm, and Erithea told her how to concentrate on the fire lizard and remain focused on acquiring what she called its "DNA." The fire lizard went still and calm once Faissi started to acquire it, which seemed to be a normal side effect. Joah took the opportunity to acquire the same green during the few seconds the dormancy lasted.

With a bit of patience, I got one as well. The blue settled onto my shoulder, his eyes whirling with curiosity, and as soon as his tail lightly gripped my neck, I started the acquiring. He went as still as the green had, and I grinned. Idynn was the last, but he finally acquired the brown fire lizard; the bronze had reappeared several times, but he was too skittish or too clever to approach us.

Erithea was starting to twitch her wings nervously_. I'm glad that's done. I need to demorph._ The process wasn't any better in reverse. I'll leave it at that. All of the wild fire lizards squawked and disappeared _between_ as soon as she started to demorph, and I didn't blame them. As soon as she had regained her own body, she explained some of the important aspects of morphing. _The instincts can be a trial to deal with the first time you morph a creature; it's easy to get lost in the animal's mindset, although it gets easier over time. However, it is absolutely _vital_ that you do not spend more than two hours in the same morph._

"Why? What will happen?" Idynn asked.

_You won't be able to morph back,_ Erithea said bluntly. _It's what we andalites call a nothlit. Someone who is trapped in a body not their own and have lost all morphing ability entirely. _

There was shuddering and gasps of fear from all of us. "Okay, don't get caught in a morph, then." Another thought occurred, and I added another question. "How will we keep track of the time?"

The andalite's main eyes blinked. _You can't track it naturally?_

"Uh, no."

_Oh…I suppose I can watch the time limit for all of us, then. We shouldn't remain in morph any longer than necessary, anyway. Speaking of time, we should start our return to your home. The yeerks will have given up their search by now, and it's best to be back before morning._ Erithea turned her stalk eyes to each of us, lingering on me and Joah. _Please don't attempt to morph on your own until we can meet again. It will be safer that way. _

I sighed, but agreed. The ship landed in the cove where Joah and Faissi's boat was stashed, and as soon as we exited, we all sort of wandered off to our own homes. We had enough to think about, me as much as the others—I was more accustomed to a nocturnal schedule, and Taisk was wide awake as well, not eager to return to the den where he spent his days. And there's a lot of things I've been wanting to put into words that no one will hear apart from Taisk. Anyway, Erithea only asked us not to _morph_ anything. She didn't say anything about _acquiring_ something else…and Taisk is right here.


End file.
